With lockdown measures more relaxed, social lives are slowly becoming possible. Restaurants, bars, gigs and museums beckon. But as we take our first cautious steps back into the wider world, we are finding it transformed.

Gone are restaurants so busy that you have to wait for service or the cheque. Now, in the coronavirus-era, social distancing has made eating out a very different experience.

At Da Enzo’s in Rome, waiters no longer hand out menus, but hold up a scan code. Customers point their smart phones at it and a menu pops up on screen with the day’s specialties.

Rome, Italy: A waiter holds a placard showing a QR code that customers can scan with their phones to access the restaurant menu, to avoid using paper menus that are touched by many customers, as Italy eases some lockdown measures put in place following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, May 20, 2020.Guglielmo Mangiapane/REUTERS

Dining companions — from the same household, please — might eat around a candle-lit table inside a glass booth on the banks of an Amsterdam canal, a concept being tried out by the ETEN restaurant.

If that doesn’t appeal, diners can try eating with a see-through lampshade on their heads, created by French designer Christophe Gernigon for restaurant owners who want to protect customers from COVID-19.

Cormeilles-en-Parisis, France: A diner poses under a Plex’Eat prototype plexiglas bubble by designer Christophe Gernigon which protects from the novel coronavirus during a presentation as restaurants in France prepare to re-open post-lockdown, May 20, 2020.Benoit Tessier/REUTERS

Other designs on the market resemble visitor booths in prisons, Gernigon said, prompting him to create a cylinder of transparent plastic that hangs from the ceiling, much like a lampshade.

“I wanted to make it more glamorous, more pretty,” he said.

Want to catch a movie after dinner but your local cinema is closed under lockdown rules? Drive-in cinemas are seeing a revival, popping up in Lithuania, Dubai and the United States.

On the Cote d’Azur, in Cannes, you can drive to Palm Beach and watch films from the comfort of your own car.

Dubai, United Arab Emirates: People sit in their cars watching a movie in a drive-in cinema at the Mall of the Emirates, following the outbreak of COVID-19, May 13, 2020.Ahmed Jadallah/REUTERS
Dortmund, Germany: Cars are seen at a provisional drive-in cinema organised by the Neovaude organisation in front of the ruin of the Phoenix West steel mill, as the spread of the COVID-19 continues, April 17, 2020.Leon Kuegeler/REUTERS
Tehran, Iran: People sit in their cars watching a movie in a drive-in cinema at the Milad Tower parking space, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), May 3, 2020.Ali Khara /West Asia News Agency/via REUTERS

If clubbing is your thing, Germans got the party started with a drive-in rave. In the car park of Club Index in the town of Schüttorf near the Dutch border, clubbers — limited to two per car — parked in rows in front of a DJ and hopped around to the beats while respecting government-imposed social distancing measures.

Lasers, glowsticks, confetti and a whole lot of horn honking set the mood as people celebrated their new-found freedom.

“The night had quite a party vibe here. It was perhaps even better than a normal club night would be,” said organizer Holger Boesch, who runs Club Index.

Sydney, Australia: Singer Cass Hopetoun performs at a drive-in concert organised to allow people to experience live music while observing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, May 21, 2020.Loren Elliott/REUTERS
Sydney, Australia: An audience member enjoys a drive-in concert organised to allow people to experience live music while observing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions, May 21, 2020.Loren Elliott/REUTERS

And forget lockdown beards and daytime pajamas — soon there will be no more excuses for the Robinson Crusoe quarantine look.

Lagos, Nigeria: Fashion stylist Sefiya Diejomaoh, 35, poses for a picture with a blinged-out protective face mask on, with colours matching her clothes, following the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), May 14, 2020.Temilade Adelaja/REUTERS
Beijing, China: Designer Zhou Li and Ni Zan’er in protective suits and silk face masks designed by Zhou pose for pictures at a studio following the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, May 17, 2020.Tingshu Wang/REUTERS
Abidjan, Ivory Coast: Arthur Bella N’guessan, an Ivorian designer, and a young model pose as they wear protective face masks with colours matching their clothes, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in the Angre area of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, May 13, 2020.Luc Gnago/REUTERS

In Lagos, designer Sefiya Diejomaoh believes a global pandemic should not get in the way of style. Gold-colored and studded with sparkling diamante jewels, her face mask matches her floor-length dress.

Designers from Lebanon to China to Nigeria are creating extraordinary face masks and protective clothing, and in South Korea, YouTubers are giving tutorials to maximize the make-up and mask look.

Bill Buford spoke about moving to Lyon with his family for a year to write Dirt, and then staying five, about their lives now in New York, and the future ...

This Week's Flyers

Comments

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles. Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site. We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful. We have enabled email notifications—you will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment, there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our community guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settings.